Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group has become the first shipbuilder in the world’s first LNG-powered, very large-sized container ship (VLCS), built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries. (Photos: HHI).

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group has become the first shipbuilder anywhere to build an LNG-powered very large-sized container ship (VLCS).

HHI is expected to secure an upper hand in winning additional container ship orders for a similar size.

Shipbuilders have found it difficult to use LNG as a fuel, citing losses in cargo volumes.

In particular, HHI Group is better positioned in the building of LNG-powered very large container ships since Korea is to deliver a VLCS in time, whereas China has failed to complete a similar order on time, which was ordered on the same day.

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of HHI Group, will deliver the 14,800 TEU class container ship to Singapore’s Eastern Pacific Shipping on Sept. 15, the Korean shipyard said on Aug. 24.

“A trial operation of the VLCS has been completed with about 130 officials from the ship owner and classification and other related organizations aboard,” the shipbuilder said.

The ship measures 366 meters in length, 51 meters in width and 29.85 meters in depth. It is the world’s first LNG-powered VLCS.

Notably, the ship is equipped with a 12,000㎥-class large LNG fuel tank, giving the vessel enough fuel capacity for an Asia-Europe round trip on a single filling.

The tank is composed of 9% nickel steel which has superior strength and impact toughness even at a cryogenic temperature (-163 °C).

The ship is also outstanding in terms of safety and container loading efficiency thanks to the optimal layout and designs applied to the LNG fuel tank, fuel gas supply system (FGSS) and dual-fuel engine.

It marks the first in a series of six LNG-fueled ships of the same size and type that HHI has been constructing over the past years after signing an agreement with EPS in April 2018, with the last delivery scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.

“In a similar way that electric vehicles nowadays stand in the spotlight in the auto industry, eco-friendly vessels like LNG-fueled ships do in the shipbuilding industry,” said an official of HHI Group.

“We are poised to consolidate our position as the trailblazer in this segment, winning the trust of more and more customers backed by our technical prowess and highest quality standards.”

To date, HHI Group has won orders to build a total of 44 vessels operating on LNG, including bulk carriers, tankers and container ships, earning the No. 1 spot in global shipbuilding orders.

Further, in July 2018, the Group became the world’s first to successfully deliver an LNG-fueled 114,000-ton class large crude carrier, which was crowned as the winner of the Next Generation Ship Award at Nor-Shipping 2019 held in Oslo, Norway, one of the three largest international maritime fairs in the world.

A view of the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries.